Opinion

Neenan Co. engineer gives up license in settlement

Company completes repairs at Merino, RE-1 Valley schools

By Erick Gorski The Denver Post

Posted:
03/19/2013 08:14:16 AM MDT

Updated:
03/19/2013 09:12:09 AM MDT

DENVER — The structural engineer on two troubled school-building projects designed and built by the Neenan Co., which has ties to Merino and RE-1 Valley Schools, has agreed to surrender his license to practice in Colorado as part of a settlement with the state.

The deal effectively ends a more than year-long dispute between H. Gary Howell and a state regulatory board that accused him of substandard work on rural schools in Meeker and Alamosa.

Howell — who agreed not to practice engineering while the case was pending — had been facing an August hearing. Under the deal finalized last week, he agreed to never reapply for an engineering license in Colorado.

“It's a good result,” said Joyce Young, a program director with the state Department of Regulatory Agencies. “The resolution protects the public and holds the engineer responsible for the work he performed.”

Fort Collins-based Neenan fired Howell in November 2011 after The Denver Post reported on problems at Meeker's then-new $18.9 million elementary school. Students attended classes there for a year before the school board ordered it closed. An independent review found “immediate structural concern,” including weaknesses in the walls' bracing system.

That led to increased scrutiny of other Neenan projects. The company agreed to pay for independent reviews that found structural issues of varying degrees of seriousness in 15 Neenan school projects financed with $150 million from a state grant program.

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Neenan was involved in the construction of Merino Elementary School and renovations to Merino High School, Sterling High School, Campbell Elementary, Ayres Elementary and Caliche School. While the independent third-party review found no issues at Ayres or Caliche, there were several repairs needed at Merino Elementary and High School, as well as SHS and Campbell Elementary.

Neenan paid for repairs at all schools where issues were found, including those in Merino and RE-1. In Alamosa, repairs were made on two elementary-school buildings after a review found columns that needed strengthening.

All repairs were completed by last year, a spokesman said. The Meeker school reopened last fall.

Howell claims in the settlement papers that his schematics and drawings “were in accordance with the level of said drawings” set by Neenan but “were not sufficiently detailed” and below the generally accepted standards of the independent structural-engineering community.

He also claimed he “never once placed any member of the public in danger” with the Meeker project or at any time during his career.

Said Young: “Although he asserts no one was injured, the potential for a safety hazard was clearly there.”

Howell said he felt singled out by DORA, which accused him of failing to “exercise appropriate skill, care and/or judgment” in applying applicable building codes and standard engineering codes.

Howell has said general notes on the Meeker project were wrong but that he saw no evidence that his underlying calculations were off.

“I feel like DORA picked on me pretty good,” he said last week. “I think it was because of the big hullabaloo with the Meeker school.”

The DORA board that oversees structural engineers and architects filed complaints last year against eight other people connected to Neenan school projects. All those complaints were dismissed.

Howell, 63, said the state was asking too much for him to retain his license, including an exam, an ethics course and monitoring.

“Those things would have cost me thousands of dollars, so I said forget it, I will retire and resign my license,” Howell said.

Young said the settlement makes clear that responsibility for the structural engineering on the projects rested with Howell.

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